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Las Vegas crime family
The Las Vegas crime family, also named the Las Vegas Syndicate, the Siegel crime family, or the Siegel crime syndicate, was a crime family created by New York Jewish American mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel in the early 1930s. Siegel ran Los Angeles and later Las Vegas' illegal gambling and prostitution rings with his lieutenants Jack Dragna, Mickey Cohen, David Berman and Moe Sedway. After Siegel's murder in June of 1947, his chief lieutenant john Cohen inherited his rackets which caused a power struggle between him and Jack Dragna, another lieutenant in Siegel's organization. The organization was allied with the Five Mafia Families—specifically the Luciano crime family—in New York, the Chicago Outfit in Chicago, and the Dragna crime family in Los Angeles. Siegel's family was the primary target for organized crime police squads, particularly the LAPD squad ran by Police Chief Bill Parker called the Gangster Squad. Siegel's family was ruled by Cohen from 1947 to 1961, in which he was arrested and convicted on charges of tax evasion twice and after he was convicted a second time in 1961, the family essentially decimated with its administration either in prison or deceased. Since the family's decimation, Vegas has been considered "open territory" for all Mafia families to control and own casinos. Origins Prohibition and Murder, Inc. During the 1920s, teenage Jewish mobster Benjamin Siegel and Meyer Lansky smuggled and ran bootlegging and heroin operations for Jewish mob boss Arnold Rothstein, until his death in 1927. Siegel and Lansky also ran the Bugs and Meyer Mob from the 1920s to the mid-1930s. The gang would smuggle and bootleg illegal liquor during Prohibition from 1920 to 1933. The gang also served as muscle for other gangs in New York and New Jersey. Future U.S. Mafia Luciano family boss Charlie Luciano used the men to carry out hits on rival gangs. In 1929, Atlantic City Irish mob boss Enoch "Nucky" Johnson hosted the Atlantic City Conference. The two men that headed the conference was Masseria family lieutenant Charles Luciano and former Chicago Southside Gang boss Johnny Torrio. Siegel and Lansky were hired as the muscle for the meeting. At the meeting, Torrio and Luciano formed the National Crime Syndicate. Castellammarese War In 1930, Castellammarese Mafia boss Salvatore Maranzano started moving in on rival Sicilian Joe Masseria's territory on orders of Sicilian don Vito Cascioferro; this caused a war between the two factions, which lasted from February 1930 to April, 1931. Luciano, Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese, and Siegel's partner in New Orleans, Frank Costello, were lieutenants in the Masseria crime family. In 1931, Luciano knew that Masseria was going to lose and secretly switched sides with Adonis, Genovese, and Costello; he met with Maranzano and had Siegel, Albert Anastasia, Adonis, and Genovese kill Masseria in a Coney Island restaurant on April 15, 1931.Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia. (2005). p. 304 And on September 10, Luciano had Siegel, Samuel Levine, and two other Lansky-Siegel gang members Dennis Eisenberg; Uri Dan; Eli Landau. Meyer Lansky: mogul of the mob. (1979). pp. 140–141 to kill Maranzano in his office, after Luciano found out that Maranzano ordered Vincent Coll to kill Luciano. Murder Incorporated In 1935, Siegel, Lansky, Jacob Shapiro, Louis Buchalter and Albert Anastasia founded a joint Italian-Jewish crime syndicate, used for contract murders and muscle for both Italian and Jewish mobs alike. It was called by the press, "Murder, Incorporated." Formation Around the time that Luciano and Lansky were forming the Commission, Siegel had a disagreement with Philadelphia bootlegger Waxey Gordon and some of his associates, the Fabrizzo brothers.Their last names are spelled Frabrazzo in different sources. See Gribben, Mark. "Bedrest". Crime Library. Siegel and Lansky had given the IRS information about Gordon's tax evasion; this led to Godon being imprisoned in 1933. Gordon hired the Fabrizzo brothers to kill Lansky and Siegel. After failed attempts on Lansky and himself, Siegel killed two of the brothers. When a third brother, Tony Fabrizzo, planned on writing a memoir about Siegel's nationwide kill-for-hire squad with his attorney, Siegel killed him. In 1932, Siegel checked into a hospital and later snuck out; Siegel and two other men approached Fabrizzo's house disguised as detectives in order to lure him out, and killed him. California Soon after the hit, Siegel learned from his associates that he was in danger. Due to his hospital alibi falling through, Siegel was in danger with his enemies wanting him dead. In the mid-late 1930s, the East Coast mob sent Siegel to California. Since 1933, Siegel had traveled to the West Coast several times,Siler, Bob. "Walking In Their Footsteps – A Look At The Mob In Los Angeles". AmericanMafia.com. (September 2005). Retrieved January 20, 2013. and developed a crime family, and in California, his mission was to develop syndicate gambling with Italian Los Angeles crime family boss Jack Dragna.Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia. (2005). p. 156 When he got to Los Angeles, Siegel removed Dragna as his chief lieutenant and made Jewish gang boss Mickey Cohen his chief lieutenant. With Siegel's reputation as a violent man and with the backing of Lansky,Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia. (2005). p. 417 Dragna accepted a lesser role when Luciano (from prison) asked for Dragna to accept a subordinate role. Siegel took over the numbers racket in Los Angeles. He used money from the syndicate to build a drug trade route from the U.S. to Mexico and organized gambling circuits with the Chicago syndicate's Trans-America Wire Service. By 1942, about $500,000 was coming from the syndicate's bookmaking wire operations each day. In 1946, due to complications with Siegel, the Chicago Outfit took the Continental Press and handed over the operation to Dragna, enraging Siegel. Despite those complications, Siegel controlled several illegal casinos and a major prostitution ring. Siegel maintained close relationships with politicians, businessmen, attorneys, accountants, and lobbyists who fronted for him. Hollywood Greenberg murder and trial Las Vegas Siegel wanted to become a legitimate businessman, and he saw the chance in 1945 with William Wilkerson's Flamingo Hotel and Casino.Wilkerson III, The Man Who Invented Las Vegas. (2000). p. 62 Siegel named it the "Flamingo" after his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, because of her long-flamingo-like legs. During 1930s, Siegel had traveled to Southern Nevada with Sedway on Lansky's orders to explore expanding operations; due to possible opportunities in providing illegal services to crews building the Hoover Dam. Lansky gave Nevada to Siegel, but Siegel turned it down and gave it to Sedway and went to Hollywood.Wilkerson III, The Man Who Invented Las Vegas. (2000). p. 74Griffin, The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law Vs. the Mob. (2006). pp. 6–7 In the mid-1940s, while Siegel was setting things up in Vegas, his lieutenants worked on a business policy to secure all illegal gambling in Los Angeles. In May 1946, Siegel decided the agreement with Wilkerson had to be altered to give Siegel control of the project.Wilkerson III, The Man Who Invented Las Vegas. (2000). p. 80 Vegas' beginnings Defiance and devastation Cohen and the Chicago Outfit After the death of Siegel, Cohen became enraged and went to the Hotel Roosevelt (the hotel in which it was rumored that Siegel's killers were at) and fired his two .45 caliber pistols into the lobby ceiling demanding the murderers of Siegel to face him. The men never did come down and he was forced to flee when police sirens were near. Cohen inherited Siegel's rackets and became the new kingpin of Los Angeles. Cohen had made Missouri criminals Tony Brancato and Tony Trombino his lieutenants. But, soon they became freelance killers and worked for both Dragna and Cohen during their power struggle following Siegel's death. On May 28, 1951, the "Two Tonys" robbed the Flamingo and were later called the "Flamingo Robbers". In retaliation, Dragan ordered their deaths and Jimmy Fratianno carried out the hit. On August 6, 1951, the Two Tonys were found dead in a car and Jimmy and Warren Fratianno, Nick Licata, Charlie Battaglia, Angelo Polizzi, and Leo Moceri. The Outfit soon started building hotels and had men like Anthony Spilotro run them. Cohen soon became arrested and convicted for tax evasion twice in his years of reigning as the family's boss. After Cohen's last imprisonment in 1961, the family decimated. Since the family's decimation, other gangs have taken control of its territory, including: Crips, Bloods, and the Gangster Disciples. Known members Throughout the family's history, the family has had over 43 well-known mobsters as members or associates of the family. Administration Bosses * Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel: 1933-1947—Founder; Former Bugs and Meyer Mob and Murder Incorporated boss; born in 1906, died in 1947 (41 years old). * Mickey Cohen: 1947—1961—Boss; Siegel's close friend; born in 1913, died in 1976 (62 years old). Lieutenants * Moe Sedway: * Mickey Cohen: * Stan Atkins Lower ranks Associates Appearances in media * Bugsy, a 1991 film based on Siegel's life in Los Angeles and the creation of the Flamingo. * Mob City, a 2013 miniseries about Siegel and Cohen's crime syndicate. * Siegel and his syndicate is featured in the James Ellroy novel The Black Dahlia. * Siegel is mentioned and Cohen and his family is a central antagonist in the 2011 video game L.A. Noire. * Siegel is the basis for Moe Greene, a character in the novel The Godfather (1969) and its film adaption (1972). * Michael Zegen plays a young Bugsy Siegel in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. * In L.A. Confidential, Jack Whalen is involved in Cohen's struggle for power. References